Smith: The KLA targeted political opponents, persons linked to Serbian authorities and members of minorities

The presiding judge of the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague, Charles L. Smith III, presented the Panel’s findings on the persons who, according to the court, were targeted by the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) and on the existence of a joint criminal purpose.

Smith said that the persons targeted by the KLA belonged to different categories. According to him, among them were members and representatives of other political or military forces, or persons linked to them, particularly with the LDK and the FARK, who had not fully renounced their loyalty to these organisations.

The second category, according to the trial panel’s findings, included persons alleged to have been linked to the authorities of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia or to Serbian authorities. In the third category, Smith mentioned members of ethnic minorities, including Roma and Serbs.

Read the presiding judge’s full statement below:

“Persons targeted by the KLA were persons of different categories, including: members and representatives of other political or military forces or persons linked to them, particularly with the LDK and the FARK, who had not fully renounced their loyalty to these organisations; 2. persons alleged to have been linked to the authorities of the FRY or otherwise to the Serbian authorities; and 3. members of ethnic minorities, among them a number of Roma and Serbs.

The trial panel found that the existence of the joint criminal purpose is supported by a number of factors, chief among them: the pre-war targeting and killing of Albanians suspected as collaborators and of ethnic Serbs, as enemies, criminals or occupiers, and the use of communiqués to claim responsibility for these attacks and killings. 2. The further targeting of Albanians and Serbs and others during the war for the same alleged reasons; 3. The use of wartime statements and political communiqués to claim responsibility for punitive measures and to warn and threaten other opponents; 4. The use of special warfare against those opponents; 5. the repetition of messages and communiqués by Hashim Thaçi, Jakup Krasniqi and Rexhep Selimi; 6. The tasking of the military police with the duty of surveillance and arrest of suspect persons, and of the intelligence service with the duty of seeking out, identifying and neutralising persons suspected as collaborators; 7. The establishment of detention centres and the holding of these persons there, and the fact that there was a similar pattern of conduct in all detention centres and in all KLA-controlled zones; 8. The searching of persons, among other things, on the basis of lists of collaborators and suspect persons or on the basis of information obtained from the intelligence sector; 9. The clear pattern of crimes committed in all KLA detention facilities… and 10. The tolerance, acceptance and encouragement of these crimes by members of the joint criminal enterprise and the existence of a general policy of impunity regarding the crimes committed against opponents. It is not the objectives that the accused sought to achieve that made their actions criminal; it is the means by which they sought to realise those objectives, particularly the systematic arrest, detention, mistreatment and killing of those whom the accused regarded or characterised as opponents. Although the responsibility of the accused is individual and personal, what they did could not have been accomplished by a single person. They did it together, with determination and with the help of others. They agreed on the joint criminal purpose, jointly decided to create a system for its joint realisation, jointly established detention facilities, jointly created and set rules for the military police, the intelligence service and special units, and tasked them with fulfilling their criminal plan. They assigned to themselves and others roles and titles and positions in which they controlled the implementation of the joint criminal purpose. They jointly appointed others to important positions, issued communiqués spreading their thoughts and policies, attacked enemies and claimed responsibility for unlawful killings and detentions. Together they ensured complete impunity for the perpetrators of these crimes as part of that joint policy.”